Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Book Blast: Zaremba or Love and the Rule of Law

Summary:

In Warsaw, a shy and high-minded polio victim lives a life
of seclusion caring for her odd family until a chance encounter plunges her
into the intrigues of dirty politics; Zaremba, a wealthy businessman, is about
to be arrested on trumped-up charges and only she can save him. Swept along by
events, Cordelia finds her feelings increasingly involved with a stranger for
whom she is both rescuer and victim. When Zaremba disappears, Cordelia must
overcome surveillance, corruption, the media, and mounting humiliations and
difficulties to learn the truth.

Although set in Poland, this is a story that could happen
anywhere, as young democracies struggle against the temptations of covert
operations and older democracies sometimes lead them astray.

Excerpt

The thug had thrown the cell phone into the street half a block

down. Please don’t let it have been run over, she thought, please.

She arrived panting. It was there. It was lying in the street, a

little off the centerline. It hadn’t been run over yet. The traffic was

heavy here; how could she reach it? She waited impatiently for a break

in the cars. She was two lanes from it. It was sixteen feet away and she

couldn’t reach it. Every car that passed she marked the space between

the wheels and the phone. One foot, six inches, three. ‘The toad

beneath the harrow knows/where every separate tooth point goes.’

The cars were coming too fast. If she stepped out they wouldn’t stop in

time.

And now the phone was ringing – ringing as it lay in the street. It

must be Darek. Only Darek called her. There was a slight opening

between the cars. She leapt off the sidewalk, and swung towards the

centerline. The phone was there, she was dropping her crutch,

reaching for it, holding it up to her ear as the cars went by on either

side, horns shrieking. She couldn’t hear. A text message. She stared at